


Out of the Game

by tablelamp



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hints of shippiness, Magic, Phone Calls & Telephones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-23 19:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16625219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/pseuds/tablelamp
Summary: Alex is finally out of Jumanji and back to his old life, as strange as that seems.  But he left someone behind...





	Out of the Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Steelneko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steelneko/gifts).



Alex opened his eyes to find himself staring at a ceiling. That wasn't odd. What _was_ odd was that the ceiling wasn't from the jungle house. Alex closed his eyes tightly, then opened them again. Ceiling. Hadn't he been shaking hands with Nigel? And how was it the middle of the night when it had just been daytime?

He sat up, body feeling strangely proportioned. Was he taller than he had been? Shorter? He couldn't quite tell. They'd saved Jumanji; he remembered that much. But if they'd saved Jumanji, shouldn't the game be over?

 _The game has multiple levels,_ Alex realized with a fresh splash of panic. _We only defeated the first level, and now that I'm in the next level, I've changed into someone else._

He looked around the room, hoping there'd be some clues about who he was supposed to be in this level. The room was dark and messy, with clothes flung everywhere. And there were band posters on all the walls, which meant his character liked music--metal, apparently.

Wait. Messy room. Metal band posters. TV and video game console at the foot of the bed. He knew this place. He recognized this place. It was _his room._

"Am I home?" Alex said to himself, and his voice sounded strange to his own ears. He'd gotten so used to Seaplane's voice that he'd forgotten what his original voice sounded like. Maybe that was why his body felt weird. He'd gotten so used to the way he moved in the game that his real self felt like an alien. He looked down at his clothes, and they seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember if this was the outfit he'd been wearing when he started playing Jumanji. So much had happened since then.

Alex looked at his video game console, the Jumanji game still sticking out of it, and shuddered. He should try to erase the game or smash the cartridge. That way...

...that way, his friends from the future would never be able to play the game and help him? No. That didn't make sense. Alex wasn't a huge science fiction fan, but he'd seen enough of _The Twilight Zone_ to understand time paradoxes. Where did they say they'd found the game...the basement of the school? He had to make sure the console and the game ended up in the school basement, so Spencer, Martha, Fridge, and Bethany could find it again. Maybe he could take it over to the school or he could ask...

...he could ask his dad. His dad was _here._ And his mom. And his whole family. They were here. Alex fought the urge to run yelling through the house to wake everyone up so he could see them and talk to them again. But no...it was the middle of the night. He'd have to wait until morning.

Alex sat back on his bed. He was home...he was really home. And everyone he'd just spent the last part of his adventure in Jumanji with wasn't even born yet. He had no one to talk to about this, no one he could tell. Tomorrow was going to be super weird, because Alex didn't think he knew enough about his day to day life anymore to fake it with his parents, or at school. What had he even been studying before he'd left? His mom and dad were probably going to get some hugs they weren't expecting, even though they probably thought they'd seen him yesterday. Technically, they had, but for Alex, it had been so long since yesterday that he didn't even remember yesterday.

Stretching out in bed, Alex looked down to notice that there was something small and rectangular in the pocket of his pajama pants. He slipped his hand in and pulled out a small, flat rectangle with a small button at its base. What was this, some kind of TV remote? Or Game Boy? He knew he'd been away from his house for quite a while, but this wasn't something he recognized at all. He touched the small button to see what would happen, and was instantly rewarded with a digital clock appearing on the rectangle's face, with a picture of Bethany behind it. How could he have a picture of Bethany, and what was this thing, anyway? If Bethany's picture was on it, maybe it was from the future.

Then it started _singing._

Alex almost dropped the phone with a yelp, startled by the sound. The song was unfamiliar--some major-key, super-poppy music that sounded like the kind of thing Bethany would be into. A phone number appeared on the front of the device, with an image illustrating how to answer the call. This was a phone. This was _Bethany's phone._ Alex poked the screen with his finger and then held the rectangle--the phone--up to his ear.

"Hello?" he said.

He heard a girl sigh. "It worked. Hi, Alex."

The girl's voice on the other end of the line was a voice he'd never heard before, but Alex knew who it was. "Hi, Bethany."

She giggled self-consciously. "How did you know it was me?"

"Who else would be calling me from the future?" Alex asked.

"I slipped my phone into your pocket during the game, when you weren't looking," Bethany said. "I didn't know if it would work."

"It worked." Alex paused. "So...where are you? 2017?"

"Yeah. We all woke up in the school basement like right after we left. I looked for you." Bethany sounded wistful.

"No, it's, uh, it's still 1996 here," Alex said. "So what stocks should I buy? What football teams should I bet on?"

Bethany snorted. "Like I know."

Alex smiled. "Is it weird? Being home?"

"Totally weird," Bethany said. "Is it weird for you?"

"I didn't recognize my room at first," Alex said.

"You were gone so much longer than us. I bet that's why."

"But you're okay? Everyone's okay?"

"I'm fine." Bethany paused. "I miss you though."

"I miss you too." Alex looked at the phone, then held it back to his ear. "So how long does this thing work anyway?"

"If you have a charger? Until it breaks. Otherwise like a few days."

"I'll see if I can figure out how to charge the phone," Alex said. "But I should probably go, because if I can't find the charger, I don't want this to be the only time we talk."

"Awww. That's so sweet," Bethany said. "Okay. Talk to you later?"

Alex nodded. "Definitely."

"Okay. Bye, Alex."

"Bye, Bethany." He had to wait for her to hang up because he had no idea how to work this thing yet.

But he was home. And he could talk to Bethany at least a few more times. That was more than enough for now.


End file.
